You may recall my Hush Hush post about great things in the making. Well, this is one of my favourites. I’m thrilled to announce the arrival of a new book, which I wrote last summer: Every Drop Counts. I really, really enjoyed researching and writing this social-justice-themed book. The research phase involved interviewing several people, including two water-savvy 10-year-olds. Also, it was a great honour to interview Dene Elder Nancy Scanie from Cold Lake First Nation in Alberta.

Every Drop Counts, Scholastic Education Canada, 2016

Nancy told me how, as a child, she used to dip a cup into a lake or river and drink water than was “pure” and “tasty.” But today in Cold Lake, lakes are dying and families have to spend hundreds of dollars on bottled water. My first thought was knee-jerk skeptical. Why not just boil the water to purify it? Yes, this works for parasites, such as beaver fever — giardia — but boiling doesn’t rid water of deadly poisons like cyanide.

In her final message, Nancy said, “Keep Mother Earth clean and keep our waters clean.” And from all the articles I combed through, the stats I examined, and the people I spoke, to Nancy’s advice stands out for its simple honesty.

The books in Scholastic’s informative Take Action series encourage children to make a difference by making changes and speaking out.

If you teach children in grades 4 to 6, you might want to check out the classroom sets available through Scholastic Canada.

Beginning with a description of a girl climbing a fence—using simple language, and with a sense of in-the-moment immediacy and raw intensity—readers may wonder at first if this could pass as a young adult novel. When a nun yells, “Get off that fence,” and it’s apparent that the fence is an enclosure around a residential school and this unknown girl—an Ojibwe—is trying to escape, the harrowing aspects of this coming of age story begin to take hold. Mature teens may well enjoy reading this timely story, which focuses on the devastating effects of residential schooling and racism, but this is a book for an adult audience. The story begins in 1964 when Molly Bell—the “skinny as a rail” protagonist and narrator—is eleven, and it extends into her adulthood.

Wake the Stone Man is told in a simple, bare-bones style. It’s the perfect medium for conveying the Northern Ontario gruffness and matter-of-fact (gonna-skin-a-moose-now) events that punctuate Molly’s remote, sawmill town surroundings. The jarring, comical, and strange northern custom of greeting a friend with “I hate your face pretty much” is a common thread through the story, alongside Molly and Nakina’s standard conversation opener: “Hey white girl.” / “Hey Anishinaabe.” There is a beautiful calmness in this exchange as it’s repeated in the same way and, I’m convinced, the same tone, despite the train-wreck of life-changing events and tragedies that unfold. The soft greeting weaves through the curving narrative of the story like a refrain or a verse of gentle poetry. It soothes. It connects.

Molly is an avid reader with a “four-book-a-week habit” by high school. When she’s under stress, she increases her habit to a book a day. Molly is an observer who watches the ways her friend Nakina is mistreated, abused, and marginalized. But when the two teens are together, their deep connection transcends horrible events and the passing of time. Though they speak in clipped sentences full of sarcasm, mocking, and a good dose of “shut ups” and “leave me alones,” it’s clear the two share a profound understanding of one another.

The author captures 1970s northern Ontario with great authenticity through expressions used in dialogue, references to pop music, draft dodgers and brief, but chilling, mentions of the Vietnam War, including napalm bombs and a Buddhist monk setting himself aflame. McDougall’s descriptions of chopping wood, star-filled skies, bitter, bitter cold, and over-wintering in a remote, poorly insulated home with no electricity show a deep connection to the land and underline Molly’s fierce sense of determination to survive and make it, despite all odds.

Certainly, this issues-focused novel is well-timed with the growing awareness and concern for survivors of the residential schools—a terrible occurrence in Canada’s past, recently called “cultural genocide” by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s interim report.

This is a story that will stimulate important discussion. The book club notes included at the back present in-depth questions to facilitate further exploration of the story’s themes.

You can find "trade" books by Jill Bryant at your favourite local bookstore.
Just ask the bookseller to order them if they aren't on the shelf.
Alternatively, shop online at Chapters Indigo.ca or Amazon.ca.